It’s August! Summer Camp has ended, and now it’s time to kick back, relax, and do some reading. Learn about new developments, events running this month, the new policy for unofficial community projects, and much more!
Here’s what’s new in the dev space this month!
⌛ Historical Events UI refresh
Editing historical events outside of timelines is now faster and easier than ever! Access your world’s events from the left sidebar (look under “Advanced Options) and edit them without page reloads. Check the guide for more details.
Check out the Changelog page on World Anvil for the full changelog.
🗓️ August events
After a month of worldbuilding with Summer Camp, we’re taking a worldbuilding break with the traditional Reading Challenge! After all, there’s no better way to learn than reading what other worldbuilders are creating—check out the challenge page here. Here are this month’s events:
- 📖 Reading Challenge: reading is the best way to improve your writing and worldbuilding, and that’s what this challenge is all about! Read what other Anvilites have created for Summer Camp and learn from them. Check the challenge page for details.
- 🏆 Summer Camp Awards Ceremony: Learn if you won anything and join the celebration on August 30th at 6pm UK/10am Pacific on our Twitch channel!
- ☕ Inner Sanctum Coffee: if you’re a member of the Inner Sanctum, join the bi-monthly Coffee, at 10am UK/2am Pacific and 4pm UK/8am Pacific! The link will be shared on the Discord channel on the day.
Follow us on Twitch to learn when we go live!
🙌 Policy for Unofficial Community Projects
World Anvil has one of the most supportive and creative communities on the internet, and as it’s grown, we’ve seen so many Anvilites create their own community challenges and other similar projects. So, to make this growing ecosystem of community-created unofficial projects a safe space for everyone, we’ve put together the Policy for Unofficial Community Projects. Check out the policy for details, and email us at contact@worldanvil.com if you have any questions.
📹 YouTube video round-up
Need a little push to improve your worldbuilding? Or want some advice from a professional worldbuilder? Here are our latest YouTube videos:
- Fix the Biggest Worldbuilding Mistakes: A prologue is not the only mistake making your lore drops feel… awkward and clunky. Janet reveals the top 4 most common exposition errors—PLUS, how to fix them!
- A Castle Worldbuilding Checklist: Castles are awesome! So they’re worth doing RIGHT. Janet breaks down a checklist with 5 simple steps to worldbuilding a castle that makes strategic sense… and is absolutely packed with story possibilities.
- How Trade Shapes Your Setting: Many worldbuilders gloss over their setting’s financial and economic aspects. But digging into these elements creates RICHER worlds!
- Create Unreliable Magic Systems to ADD TENSION to Your Worldbuilding: Hard magic vs soft magic systems? Often the most satisfying choice sits somewhere in the middle. Janet explains how you can have the best of both worlds by adding elements of the unexpected to your world’s understood rules of magic.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay on top of all our latest videos.
🤔 Keys to Kickstarter success from a successful Anvilite!
Wondering how to make it on Kickstarter? Unoraptormon is a fellow Anvilite who’s ran a very successful first Kickstarter for her book. She told us all about her experience—check her blog post to learn about it!
🌟 Community highlight
Get inspired by a world of hopeful darkness with Bellyem, the winner of the Best World category in the 2025 Worldbuilding Awards! Here’s what Loup Des Bois, the creator, had to say about it:
It may sound silly, but I’ve always wanted to be cultured and know more about the world in order to understand it better. Through worldbuilding, I’m interested in subjects that I wouldn’t instinctively have been drawn to. To create Bellyem, I need to better understand our own world and its problems. This makes me grow in a way.
Every day I work on a new layout for my articles, which lets me put my creativity to work and establish a daily routine. Seeing the progress of my work gives me a little more confidence in myself every day.
What I love about World Anvil is reading other people’s work, it’s very inspiring. During the Worldbuilding Awards, I discovered a lot of people who are real hidden gems that deserve to be showcased. I decided to take part in the Awards because I’d been impressed by Stormbril’s work with Cathedris, and I hope in turn to inspire the more shy and reserved to share with us the worlds they imagine.
This is a world full of mystery and wonder with a deep focus on both its long history and an ever-present sense of danger. If you’re looking for some dark worldbuilding inspiration, dive into the world of Bellyem!
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